‘Co-production’ is a long-standing practice and a newly minted hot topic in social care. It is based on our ability to involve all relevant people, or ‘stakeholders’ as they say in corporate meeting rooms, in the process of care design. It guarantees that the people who are utilising a care service are involved in the production of that care. An undertaking that lies at the heart of person-led care.  

If people with support, families and commissioners expect this of care providers, then it is only natural that those care providers should demand it from their software suppliers as well. 

At Nourish Care, co-production is central to our design process. It bridges our technical expertise with our user’s care experience to produce effective, efficient solutions. Our user’s input guides our development, with feature requests, feedback forms and beta testing being just some of the essential ways we keep our user’s experience central to our development.  

The latest Innovation to emerge from this process is our new ‘Time Off Management’ functionality for Nourish Rostering and Community. We know that managing rosters is one of the most demanding aspects of providing home care, for both coordinators and carers. We developed our Time Off Management feature to address these challenges directly based on extensive user feedback, advice and industry insights.  

Our new functionality is designed to simplify your time off processes, making it easier to manage leave, maintain coverage, and ensure a smooth operation for everyone involved.  

The features of our new Time Off functionality are all directly tied to the feedback and input of our users. 

Holiday schemes allow for a group of settings to be built and then applied to relevant carers. This grants customisability and flexibility to coordinators while removing the need to configure each carers holiday settings individually. You can group holiday accrual, reference periods, pay methods and more to make the complexities of specificity a simple activity. 

We found the denominator of our feature requests for time off functionality was customisability. It is the most effective way to support the varied and at times unpredictable home care provider’s scheduling needs. 

Features like year start dates for holiday accrual, carry over time settings for different time off types and pay calculations all vary from service to service, and across different governments and geographies. For example, the holiday pay reference period in the UK is 52 worked weeks while in the Republic of Ireland it is a 13-week reference period. It was vital we build these features with the freedom for our users to customise the settings and wrap them around their unique service. 

We have also included a manual entitlement adjustment for coordinators for precise control when desired. A need we discovered when talking to a lot of the participants in our beta testing phase. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be Nourish without analytics and reporting functionality as well. We have a fantastic analysis page to help administrators keep track of their carers time off. It includes a calendar view of all booked, requested and refused time off, a chart of absence types e.g. holiday, sick, bereavement, a table view of the adjustments made to their carer’s entitlement, a table view of requests, their status and the option to filter or edit them as desired. 

We built several key new time off functions into our carer app as well. This gives more insight and control to carers. With our new Time Off Management functionality carers can request leave directly from the rostering app, simplifying the process of requesting time off for a variety of reasons including holidays, sickness and bereavement.

Carers can use the app to review their remaining time off allowance and keep track of requests. We centralised all this information to further our app as the leading carer support platform in home care. Information is power for a carer on the go and with this new functionality we continue to develop our ‘all-in-one pocket’ solution. It provides an overview of their currently accrued time off and helps to make the process of defining availability and accrual more straightforward for everyone involved. 

Carers can use the app to review their remaining time off allowance and keep track of requests. We centralised all this information to further our app as the leading carer support platform in home care. Information is power for a carer on the go and with this new functionality we continue to develop our ‘all-in-one pocket’ solution. It provides an overview of their currently accrued time off and helps to make the process of defining availability and accrual more straightforward for everyone involved. 

For non Nourish users who want to learn more about our approach to co-production and working with us to support their home care service, book a demo. 

We have spent years working on our rostering system to make this as quick and straightforward as possible. Something we could only achieve thanks to co-production with our users through our beta testing processes. We spoke to Samantha Rabvu, Care Manager for TLB 24/7 Healthcare, about her experience participating in our Time Off Management beta. 

“We were paper based for annual leave requests,” explained Samantha. “Which meant someone had to fill in a form and scan it or take a picture of it. Then we were constantly just printing so I could give it to the person who’s approving annual leave. So when the offer to take part in a beta test for time off came along I just thought. ‘I don’t know what it is going to look like, but it sounds like something we could really use.’

“It offered the chance to cut out the middle man, the printing, and give power to both our carers and our coordinators. It was the chance to move to real time updates, rather than requests from a variety of platforms. In December last year we had a whole lot of annual leave requests. Honestly, we lost track of them due to the volume and variety of requests. Which was a major concern for us. So, when I saw that you were building something that could show us how many people are asking for time off and those who are already taking time off before approving any more, it was a game changer for me.” 

“I felt very involved,” said Samantha. “I could see the team was really drawing out our feedback with the questions they asked. ‘How is it going?’ ‘How are you guys using it?’ ‘Are there any adjustments we should make?’ I felt like a real partner that the things were saying were being considered. When we saw one of our suggestions in the next update it was amazing. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one suggesting it, but it was awesome.  

“We were involved throughout the process, even my team here was quite involved. Any issue that they had, they knew they could bring it to me, and I would pass it on. That way we always got things resolved.” 

“They were on it,” said Samantha, “They were on the money. It was so easy. If there was an issue, I’d send a screenshot and they were on it, we looked at it in depth, it was awesome. I had a main contact point but worked with several different members of your team. I just knew that they were there. They had our back, no matter what.  

“They are awesome, friendly, approachable, and we could rely on them 100%. Even the way bad news came was awesome. When something wasn’t ready, we always knew that it was still in development, it’s just not ready yet. We understood because of the communication, and we trusted your team.” 

“We’re on the right track,” said Samantha. “This was a great starting point for me. It was fantastic. Even though I was a little unsure at the start, digital wise, this isn’t something i had a lot of experience with. The process helped us to develop skills and tactics on how to navigate the rest of the digitalization roadmap, which is great.  

“So, I’m hopeful. I’m looking forward to it, it’s exciting, because I feel involved in the process. I feel like we are growing with you, and we can build something great together.” 

The future of social care will be shaped by co-production throughout the entirely of our sector. Lived experience, collaboration, data sharing, all fold together under the guiding philosophy of teamwork and community. We received over 150 feature requests for more advanced time off functionality. Which was the starting point of our development cycle, and a continuing example of our approach to digital social care solutions. 

We still have a long way to go, and we are very excited about the journey. Why don’t you join us? 

Home care software is baked into the future of social care. We witnessed a huge increase in the uptake of digital systems across social care over the past 3 years. A change accelerated by government policy and funding. This considerable uptake brought with it a range of advantages and benefits for care providers. For example, digital rostering systems like Nourish help providers to simplify processes, reduce administration times and record more detailed information. With digital systems becoming commonplace in social care there has never been a more urgent time to switch to Nourish. Admissions for the funding available through Integrated Care Systems will close at the end of November. Even for those providers who are still getting up and running choosing the right digital rostering system is crucial for many reasons. 

Nourish gives you the tools to take full control over your home care administration. This means more than rosters designed for simple and swift use. It means a robust system compiling the wealth of data your teams naturally gather to provide you with a clear overview of what is happening in your community.  

With Nourish you can schedule your carers and clients up to four weeks in advance. Repeating these schedules with ease to improve consistency across your service. Of course, as all home care administrators understand, nothing ever goes totally to schedule. Nourish home care rostering is designed with drag and drop functionality that makes changing your schedule on short notice easier than ever. Our home care software includes a ‘recommend a carer’ feature that is scored based on a range of data points you choose and weight. Such as: familiarity with client, travel to appointment and relevant skills for the appointment’s tasks. So, you can adjust quickly, decisively and with confidence. 

Digital rostering offers benefits beyond simplifying existing paper processes. Nourish Rostering and Community unlock a range of features that put new innovations and fresh information at your fingertips. Call monitoring is a straightforward way to record actual appointment times. Nourish includes geographic location and a range of electronic call monitoring options to suit your needs. Care providers, especially those with local authority and council contracts can attest to the benefits of a robust call monitoring system. 

Crucially, with a quality home care software like Nourish, you can access data at a level previously unattainable with paper. This data is easily presentable and evidencable in trends and reports. You can track different factors regarding your team and community to give you a more detailed overview of your service. These details, like travel times and medical administration, can be fed back into your service to drive positive outcomes. As well as acting as informative evidence for your regulator. 

Nourish home care software supports care providers across your service. Home care requires a great deal of administration and organising. Beyond the design of schedules and care packages there is the crucial matter of making sure everything is in order, and everyone is properly paid. This can be quite daunting for people when they are just setting out their new home care service. Especially those less familiar with operating a business.  

Our invoicing and timesheets are a simple way for you to organise your payroll. You can use Nourish to set specific pay rates and charge rates, to match with the responsibilities of your teams and the services they provide. Our home care software includes comprehensive time-off functionality. Allowing you to set the rate at which holiday is earned, and for your team to manage and request leave through the Nourish home care app. 

Big changes are rarely simple. But with the future of social care coming at us at its current speed, now is the simplest time to do it. The best home care software comes backed up with a human team. People who will work with you to make sure you get everything you need from your system. At Nourish we pride ourselves on being person-led and community-centred. We are incredibly excited about the future of social care, and we’d love to share it with you. 

If you want to find out more about working with Nourish book a demo! 

Professional development in social care is a fundamental building block for the future of our sector. Skills for Care’s ‘Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care’ details several benefits of investing in care eLearning and training. These range from driving quality care to improving your ability to recruit and retain care workers. Fundamentally, the impact of professional development in social care reverberates through every aspect of your service. At Nourish Care we appreciate that there are many white papers, plans and strategies for improving social care. The challenge lies in finding the time, energy and platform to pursue them.  

That’s why we are so excited to announce the latest member of our Nourish Partnership Programme, MyAko. MyAko are a Skills for Care and CPD accredited eLearning provider. We’ve partnered with them to deliver an all-in-one digital learning solution for home care agencies. Our platform links directly to the Nourish Rostering app. Enabling easy access for your staff and offering a streamlined way to manage training compliance. With over 100 thousand active users MyAko’s comprehensive library of courses covers a range of topics. Their platform has over 60 courses dedicated to professional development in social care, including Care Certificate, Safeguarding Adults and Children, and Moving and Handling People. Crucially, they are committed to continually developing and adding to the courses they provide.

We linked our home care rostering platform directly with MyAko to streamline your experience. This means you will have full access to a range of MyAko’s care eLearning features directly through Nourish. Shape the development of your teams by assigning and tracking courses. You can keep an eye on progress and monitor compliance throughout the duration of these courses for more organisational oversight as well as downloading certificates upon course completion. This gives you a throughline for recording, reviewing and reporting your teams training. So not only can you provide professional development in social care, you can evidence it as well.  

Signing up is as straightforward. Simply head over to the Admin eLearning section and click the “Sign Up” button to get started. Once activated you can set up Course Assignment Rules to establish mandatory courses for your team, based on your existing regions or job titles. It is also possible to set up unique training per person when it’s needed. You’ll find this option in the Individual Course Assignment section. 

You pay for courses with course credits, which can be bought directly through the platform. The cost of courses ranges from 1-3 credits depending on the topic. This gives you the flexibility to pick and pay for courses suited to your company’s needs. There is a report available for your course credit purchases as well to help you keep track of your costs. You can also establish pay settings to ensure that your teams are compensated for their learning time.  

MyAko boasts a range of courses covering a variety of relevant topics for social care. Including professional skills, safeguarding and clinical best practise. With over 60 courses to choose from you can shape your training to the needs of your community. Here are some examples. 

The Care Certificate is an agreed set of standards that define the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of specific job roles in the health and social care sectors. Developed jointly by Skills for Care, Health Education England and Skills for Health because of the need for official certificates in our sector. The Care Certificate consists of the 15 minimum standards people considered ‘new to care’ need to cover which should form part of a robust induction programme. MyAko’s course covers the 15 standards within the Care Certificate and checks the knowledge of the learner through the end-of-module assessments.  

MyAko offers courses that are directly tied to care skills, as well as ones that help develop other professional skills necessary to provide outstanding care. The appraisals course aims to provide the learner with general knowledge surrounding staff appraisal skills and the role it plays within the workplace. This course is a combination of both theoretical knowledge and interactive activities, designed to help the candidate learn, and practice. This develops crucial leadership and management skills for your staff and helps provide a pathway for further development.  

Duty of Candour is a common expectation from all health and care providers. It requires care providers and managers to act in an open and transparent way with people receiving care or treatment from them. While this seems straightforward from the outside all carers can appreciate the delicate touch it requires. This course shows learners that promoting a culture of openness is a prerequisite to improving customer safety and the quality of our health and social care systems. Upon completion of the course, your team will be able to classify Duty of Candour and recognise best practice. Another key point is how you can distinguish between various levels of harm and associated actions and additionally which of these are notifiable safety incidents. 

We recently released a new training matrix report. This report is available to all Nourish home care users, regardless of if you sign up for the new care eLearning courses. This exportable report provides an overview of your team’s training status, as a result making it easier to track who’s completed their training and who may need a refresher. For more information about your new report, log in to your Nourish Rostering system and check out the Training Matrix Report guide found in the Help Centre. With this new report we aim to make managing your team’s learning and development more efficient and straightforward. 

Training is a crucial part of developing the future of care. It is vital we engage with professional development in social care to continue to take charge of our own sector. Empowered care teams deliver higher quality care with more job satisfaction. Investing in care eLearning can help with the recruitment and retention of your workforce as well. With Nourish and MyAko you can lay the foundations for your future success.

Find out more and sign up today! 

Change is an uncertain thing by design. We grow and improve through change, but that does not mean we always know exactly how. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is in a transitional period. A period whose challenges reverberate across the social care sector and beyond, raising hopes, but also questions. We recently hosted a CQC webinar where Chris Day, CQC’s Director of Engagement, answered the most prominent questions submitted by Nourish Care users. As put to him by our Director of Customer Success, Ruth Norman.  

We learned of an organisation adapting to the needs of its community and building for the future. An organisation with enough self-awareness to recognise the mistakes it’s made, and the vision to correct them in the continuing pursuit of their person-centred, technology-enabled, ambitions.  

“The next steps of this journey for us is very much working with you so you and our colleagues who inspect have a really clear and collective understanding of what good looks like.” – Chris Day, Director of Engagement, CQC 

The CQC webinar was exclusively for Nourish users. We selected some of Chris Day’s most prominent insights below.  

If you are interested in joining Nourish and working with regulators, commissioners and communities to build the future of social care together, book a demo today. 

At the heart of the new inspection framework is a realisation. The CQC felt they were too focused on processes, not outcomes. The new approach focuses on outcomes, on the voice of the people and using the service and the staff supporting them. ‘I’ statements are designed to reflect what an individual expects from their service, and the ‘We’ statements illustrate how a service responds to those expectations. The CQC are eager to connect the dots between services with their new assessment framework. However, they acknowledge the work needed to refine how ratings translate across the 18 sectors they regulate and want to work with providers to address this. 

Chris highlighted the importance of re-establishing the link between providers and their local inspectors. He admitted the CQC overlooked the importance of these relationships when establishing the single assessment framework. The quality of these local relationships is crucial for building trust. They will launch a series of pilot programmes for local inspector hubs in October 2024 and will share further information for attendees through Nourish. The CQC want to give people the ability to talk to their inspectors without an inspection. To know and understand their inspectors through continued engagement. To build trust at a local level and share best practise.   

“A manifestation of care planning reality,” said Chris.  The biggest delineator of ratings comes down to the extent providers understand the issues they face. Including those outside their control, and crucially, what they are doing to address them. They want providers to show the relationship between the care planning, the training, the way observations are taken and the way support is given. It is important to give your team the confidence to connect data and information with people’s lived experiences. And the comprehension to explain those connections to inspectors. It’s not about providing a wealth of raw data. Care plans are more than a box-ticking exercise. How you tell the narrative story matters.  

Specifically, during our CQC webinar, Chris advised providers to use ‘edge’ or ‘outlier’ cases. Rather than a uniform overview of similar care plans. The new framework focuses on how a care plan reflects how you deliver care. How the person utilising support and their family experiences the care and how the specifics of your service’s context shape the care. Show the journey.  

First and foremost, it is important to understand the portal has several different functions. Chris spoke about the registration, notification and assessment functions during our CQC webinar. Fundamentally, the technology behind the portal isn’t working in the way they wanted. While notifications are functioning and will continue to do so, registration and factual accuracy checks are not. The CQC recognise how important it is to keep these services running, and so will be reverting to the pre-portal approach for both. Those who have completed or nearly completed their registration through the portal will not need to redo it in the old fashion, while those earlier in the process will be supported to switch methods. They are building out their registration team to expedite this process. Further information will be shared with Nourish users shortly.  

“I think we’ve let you down in terms of the time it takes to process registrations and take forward inspections,” said Chris. Addressing this swiftly is the key motivator for moving back to the older systems. They will be able to increase the number of registrations and inspections they conduct by returning to systems they are familiar with.  

The CQC looks to divide registrations between complex and ‘transactional’ needs, to help resolve simpler registration requests quickly. They will still use the quality statements for inspections, rather than key lines of enquiry, with the older process. “We know we had higher productivity pre covid with the inspection approach we took,” explained Chris. 

 The priority of inspections going forward for the CQC is ‘to form a view of the quality that someone who is going to use that service can expect’. They are currently undertaking modelling for inspection timelines and rates and are expecting to finish the modelling in November. Once the modelling is completed the CQC will share it with Nourish and providers. 

Naturally there was apprehension in our chat about the order of urgency of inspections. While the priority will be on addressing known harm, uninspected newly registered services and services ranked poorly who have had time to improve, Chris acknowledges the need to focus on inspections that show the positive changes providers have implemented. They are growing teams and their use of clinical experts to increase their inspection capacity. 

For those uncertain about how long this will take it is important to remember, when key lines of enquiry were first brought in, the CQC inspected every service in their charge over three years.  

Currently there are a range of experience and comfort levels with care technology in their workforce. A major part of inspector training is to ensure they understand the technology available to providers. Something they are eager to work with Nourish on developing.  Chris acknowledges the significant role technology can play in helping the CQC establish a ‘common view of quality in adult social care’.  

Data is a huge opportunity for care. Normally data is centred on the NHS. Access to real time information increases the understanding of care and service performance. Which in turn drives positive change. Bringing commonality to how data defines quality care is no easy feat, and there is a journey still to go on. However, Chris knows from previous work that data information is often at the heart of positive changes organisations have made and it has an important part to play in shaping the future of health and care. Including conversations about the long-term funding of health and care. 

As the hour drew to a close we posed a selection of questions from the session to Chris. Here is a brief overview of his responses. 

The CQC plans to review their inspection ratings in the near future. Their goal is always to triangulate data to get a full picture of the quality of a service. The primary goal being to establish these ratings as a more narrative description of the care you can inspect, rather than simply a ‘score’. 

The provider ‘handbook’ for inspections was recently approved. Over the next four to eight weeks the CQC will engage with providers to develop it. 

Understanding risk is crucial to justifying it. With specific regard to concerns over how the CQC will review potentially risky activities that increase quality of life for people drawing on support. This reiterates the need to rebuild trust between providers and inspectors Chris discussed earlier in the CQC webinar.  

Their ambition for Local Authority inspections to relate to provider inspections. The CQC are committed to providing further context for provider inspections by better understanding the worlds in which they operate.  

“That’s my ambition,” concluded Chris. “It’s not where we are at the moment, but I’d really like to do that. I’m happy to come back and talk about the Local Authority stuff moving forward.” 

The CQC are building for the future. But in order to do that they know they have to rebuild trust with the adult social care sector. There remains a great deal of work ahead of all of us to achieve the ambitions of the regulator and providers alike. Ultimately, we are all unified in our vision of better, more person-centred, care.  

Nourish are committed to working with everyone involved in the process, so we can change with confidence and drive better outcomes as a result. Join Nourish today to avail of future CQC webinars, integrated innovations and community led care technology.

The biggest show of the social care calendar is right around the corner, Care Show Birmingham. The biggest show attracts the biggest names for the most important conversations. This year we are sponsoring the Care Keynote Stage and we are so excited!

There is a wealth of experience and insight on display on the Keynote Stage in Birmingham. Day 1 is loaded with leaders, lessons and laughs. We contacted the speakers taking to the Keynote Stage for some sneak previews of what they will cover. From state regulators to self-regulation there are several great talks, and only one place to see them.

While you’re visiting the show make sure to come say hi to us on stand G40!

Here’s our Nourish insight into the speakers on the Keynote Stage on Day 1, Wednesday 9^th October.

10:30 – 11:00 
Speakers
Mark Topps, Co-Founder and Director, The Caring View 
Adam Purnell, Co-Founder and Director, The Caring View 
Caroline Barker, Legal Director, Healthcare Regulatory 
Julie Garrity, Independent Health and Social Care Advisor

The Caring View is a well-known and highly regarded source of useful information and important conversations in social care. Join the hosts, Mark Topps and Adam Purnell as they welcome Caroline Barker, Julie Garrity and the entire care community to a cool-headed conversation on one of the hottest topics in our humble sector, regulation.  

“The focus of our conversation with be, ‘how can we ensure compliance with the regulator with regards to care quality?’ So, we’ve got Julie Garrity, who’s an ex CQC inspector and social care advisor, and Caroline Barker from HCR law joining us. We’re going to talk around. Obviously, we know that there’s loads of confusion out there around the single assessment framework. Plus we’re all waiting for Dr Penny Dash’s full report into the CQC. HCR law has seen an increase in people contesting the outcome of their reports. Julie and other consultants have said they’re inundated with providers that need support. Our goal is to triangulate everything that’s going on, all these different sources of information and experience, to focus on how providers can actually just look forward, be streamlined, and leave the framework as it is with all the changes that are going on.” Mark Topps, Co-founder and Director – The Caring View

11:05 – 11:35 
Speaker
Matthew Stewart, Chief Product Officer, Nourish Care 

Our own Chief Product Officer, Matthew Stewart, will be treading the Keynote Stage boards on day 1. With an extensive background that covers a range of sectors, Matthew understands the crucial moment care technology has reached. There are huge opportunities for care providers and digital suppliers to come together and co-produce effective solutions for everyone in care.

“I love a good challenge. Throughout my career the challenges I faced were consistently about transformation. I worked in many different sectors, but always at the same moment, when there is the opportunity for change, for an industry to take the next step and move forward. As Chief Product Officer for Nourish I recognise that same point in social care. Now is the time for us to face the challenge of utilising digital care systems effectively and take the next big step in quality care. It will not be simple, and it will rarely be straightforward, but we already see positive examples emerging across social care. Join me for an open and ambitious conversation covering what we have achieved already, and what more we can achieve together.” 

11:50 – 12:20 
Speaker
Dr Ant Webb, Founder, Switched on Thinking

Dr. Ant, also known as the Brain Whisperer, empowers people through the art of positive mind practice. In a world of constant stress, pressure and responsibility it is no surprise so many carers are facing burnout. Join Dr Webb for an inspiring keynote on stress management and mindset empowerment, designed specifically for the care sector.  

“In this session, I will introduce my powerful Switched on Thinking® methodology, showing how caregivers can shift from reactive to proactive mindsets. I can help carers learn how to identify emotional triggers, manage stress before it escalates, and foster collaboration within their teams to enhance resilience. Through practical tools like the Circle of Awareness®, attendees will leave with actionable strategies to improve their own well-being while enhancing the quality of care they provide. This is a must-attend talk for those looking to build a stronger, more supportive care environment while preventing burnout and enhancing team cohesion. Don’t miss this transformative session!” 

13:30 – 14:00
Speaker
Big Ian Donaghy, Chair

The sweet tooth from chocolate city, Big Ian Donaghy will be the Chair for the Keynote Stage. He will also be taking to the stage himself just after lunch to talk about how we can all benefit by supporting neurodiversity in care. 

“My talk is about why we need to embrace the neuro divergence population into care. If we want things to stay the same, then we need to be bringing people into care who just think the same and do the same and are happy to do the same. Whereas, if you want to create change, you need somebody who looks at things differently. Someone who does things differently and someone who maybe treats people differently. We need people in care who are different, not worse. People in care who are different, not less. We need people who are magnificently different to create change, to make care better. So, I’m doing a big thing about why we need to go looking for the people who view things differently so that we can revolutionize care.”

14:15 – 14:45 
Speakers
Vikki Beckwith, Managing Director, The Affinity Care Group Limited 
Tiffany Nelson, Operations Manager, The Affinity Care Group Limited

Regulators are a common source of consternation in care. Inspections are always going to involve stress; it is a natural part of the process. Providers know how important it is to put their best foot forward in these situations, but do you know how? With recent reforms and reports there remains an air of uncertainty when evidencing to the CQC. An air that Affinity Care Group are looking to help providers dispel with their informative and actionable afternoon talk.  

“At the Care Show Birmingham this year, we’re covering a topic that I believe many care providers will find valuable. Evidencing for a CQC inspection is a major challenge for many in the sector. As a business, you may be doing everything right, but if you can’t evidence it properly, your rating could be impacted. Last year, we focused on navigating the CQC’s new Single Assessment Framework, but this year, we’re shifting to a more actionable topic. Our hope is that attendees leave with the confidence and knowledge to excel in their next CQC inspection.” Vikki Beckwith, Managing Director – The Affinity Care Group Limited 

15:00 – 15:30 
Speakers
Angela Boxall, Chief Executive Officer, Majesticare Luxury Care Homes 
Diane Danzebrink, Consultant, Speaker, Educator & Author, Menopause Support

Menopause is a big topic, one that has a profound impact on the social care workforce. However, it is too frequently relegated to small conversations. Join Angela Boxall and Diance Danzebrink as they take on the big issues at the heart of menopause and how care providers can improve the support and understanding they offer. 

“In our session I will be sharing an overview of the diversity of the menopause experience to help organisations understand how they can offer help and support to colleagues, whatever their menopause experience. My own experience made me acutely aware of just how difficult it can be to navigate the confusing worlds of menopause and mental health without the right help and support. As a result, I combine my professional therapy skills, experience and nurse training in menopause to focus on providing factual, evidence-based information and support to help others navigate menopause and mental health.” Diane Danzebrink – Menopause Support

With so many great options for attendees at Care Show Birmingham 2024 it is understandable to have your attention divided. Make sure you make time for some of the engaging sessions we have listed above. And don’t forget to come visit us on stand G40, we’ve got plenty more surprises in store!

Back to Articles

Social care technology grew rapidly over the past 5 years. A variety of digital and technical solutions for the range of challenges that care providers face every day. In the rush to provide effective solutions suppliers created a new problem, replacing analogue silos of information with digital ones. The Nourish Partnership Programme addresses this problem by building a comprehensive digital estate of integration partners, that our users can review and apply to their service as required, so they can continue to provide outstanding care for their communities. 

At Nourish Care we are excited to announce our partnership with Altra, a wellbeing and engagement app. We have covered their activities, wellbeing, feedback and survey features previously. In our final blog we are going to cover our favourite focus of Altra, communication and community.  

Altra is an Irish company who were founded in 2019. Their name, directly translated from Gaeilge means ‘nurse’. In this linguistic spirit we would like to share with you another popular Irish phrase; Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine. It means ‘People live in each other’s shadows.’ Admittedly something is lost in the translation, but the heart of this message rings true regardless of tongue. We rely on each other for shelter, for strength, for community. 

Our family and friends play a crucial role in our lives. When a provider wants to help people to live their lives to the fullest, they must consider the involvement of family and friends, otherwise known as their circle of care. The closer connected someone remains with their circle of care, the more involved and engaged they feel in their own life. Altra gives users the tools to support circles of care, evidence engagement and promote connections on terms that both care providers and the people who draw upon their service can be comfortable with. 

The Single Assessment Framework is the Care Quality Commission’s new approach to inspections. The first of the 6 new evidence categories of this framework is ‘People’s experience of health and care services’. In their own words: 

“This is all types of evidence from people who have experience relating to a specific health or care service, or a pathway across services. It also includes evidence from families, carers and advocates for people who use services.” 

Care providers who engage routinely with the people using their service and their circles of care benefit from a constantly updating record of the experiences of their care. Evidence of which impresses regulators regardless of geography. This information is invaluable for shaping your care, as well as your inspection rating. Altra provides a platform for wellbeing and activities information to be both recorded and shared. One that is rooted in lived experience, regulatory requirements and familial responsibility.  

Family means ‘Ohana’, and ‘Ohana’ means nobody gets left behind. This is one of the many key life lessons imparted by Disney’s 2002 classic Lilo and Stitch. A loved one receiving care is a source of great relief for many families, but also one of great stress. The natural impulse to check in on them consistently is one we have all felt towards those we care about. While entrusting your loved one to receive care from a service is a source of immense relief, it is still only natural to want to check in on that service.  

Altra makes this process not only simple, but beneficial to all parties. It gives families the tools to share their perception and experience of the care their loved one is receiving with the care provider.  

There is an understandable apprehension amongst care providers when deciding how much to involve families and friends in the inner workings of their loved one’s care. The information care providers choose to share with a person’s circle of care needs to be detailed enough to satisfy their questions, while being digestible enough to calm their concerns. Altra provides a suite of features so you can directly link people into a circle of care, clearly illustrate the activities their loved one is engaged with and their level of wellbeing.  

Altra provides a secure engagement application that allows care providers to share updates on the well-being of people utilising their service directly with their circle of care. This app works a bit like an Instagram feed updating the interested party with all the relevant information they need regarding their loved one’s care. 
 
Altra simplifies the process of engaging and collaborating with a person’s circle of care. You can share information with families in a variety of forms, including video, photos and direct messages. Providers use these different formats to paint a complete picture of the support they are providing, and the life the person using their service is living as a result.  

This app is not a one-way street either. It promotes engagement by allowing families to post updates for their loved ones as well. Altra enables these digital updates to be easily converted to physical printed newsletters, delighting the people you support. Specific information that speaks to the individuality of the people using your service and promotes the connections that make life worth living.  

Altra goes beyond digital connections. Care home operators can use the app to set up ‘family events’. Invite relevant people to the event and it will display who is attending, who has responded and so on. Through this functionality Altra promotes visits in a way that easily feeds back into your existing system. You can include as much information about the planned visit as you want. This simplifies your organisational process while maintaining an up-to-date record of the visit for reviewing and reporting purposes. 

Of course, not everyone will be able to visit all the time. You can also arrange video calls through Altra to make sure that residents stay connected to their circle of care.  

The app even includes a concierge service. This can be used by the circle of care in a variety of ways, including ordering special requests from the kitchen (such as birthday cakes!) or booking specific outings and events for their loved one. All requests are easily recordable and reportable so you can efficiently factor them into your invoicing process. 

Care comes in all shapes and sizes, and it casts a long shadow. One that people, families and communities use for shelter. The more involved everyone feels in the construction of this shelter, the more satisfaction everyone takes in its success. With Nourish and Altra you can build strong connections throughout your service, capitalising on the ones that are already there, and providing the foundations for many more.

You can read more about Altra’s functionality:
Activities and Wellbeing
Feedback and Surveys

Social care technology grew rapidly over the past 5 years. A variety of digital and technical solutions for the range of challenges that care providers face every day. In the rush to provide effective solutions suppliers created a new problem, replacing analogue silos of information with digital ones. The Nourish Partnership Programme addresses this problem by building a comprehensive digital estate of integration partners, that our users can review and apply to their service as required, so they can continue to provide outstanding care for their communities. 

Communication drives care. We see this reflected in care interactions every day, as well as the new single assessment framework from the Care Quality Commission. Our ability to understand, to support and to elevate each other is born from our ability to communicate. That’s why we at Nourish Care are so excited to announce our partnership with Altra, a wellbeing and engagement app!  

With a suite of features that champion person-centred care, lived experience and wellbeing, Altra offers care providers the tools to transform their communication.  

The 2016 Care Act charges providers with the responsibility to ‘promote wellbeing whenever they carry out any care and support functions for individuals.’ A substantial assignment contained in 13 words. The result of this legislation has proven unlucky for some, as the task of promoting wellbeing is as multi-faceted as it is vague.  

Outstanding providers know that the best way to promote wellbeing is to promote communication. Involving everyone, from every level of your service, is the best way to ensure you stay connected to people’s wellbeing.  Altra empowers users to promote the individuality of the people utilising their service, without significantly increasing the workload on their team or the burden on the people drawing on their care.  

Altra gives you the tools to capture pertinent information at the point of care. Carers can post photos, videos and notes within the Altra app to showcase the activities you provide and how people have participated. You can even include polls and tag loved ones, so you get direct feedback from the relevant people. The ability to capture sentiment on each activity gives you a primary source to understand the experiences of your community. This provides an invaluable line of communication to ensure your care is person centred and your people feel valued and listened to. 

Altra also appreciates the less time you spend on admin the more time you can focus on communicating with your community. The fluid integration between Nourish and Altra removes the need for duplication of effort. These benefits will be felt throughout your organisation, and Altra really shines when supporting Activities Co-ordinators. 

An Activities Co-ordinator plays a crucial role in care homes. On the surface it may seem like a simple enough role. In reality, it carries a depth of meaning and purpose for the people utilising your service We are engaged through action and interactivity. Whether it is music, art or exercise we all have our preferences. What we are really talking about is the act of living, of experiencing the world on our terms and expressing ourselves as people through our actions. An Activity Co-ordinator is an orchestrator of experiences, an engagement conductor, someone who provides those with lived experience of care the experience of living life the way they want, in a place they can call home. 

Altra understands this role’s depth and complexity and supports it with specific and intuitive functionality. You can specify your activities, build calendars and review events afterwards to gauge their impact and continuously improve.  

Another key functionality that separates Altra from other communication tools is the specificity and customisability of their activities calendar.  Simplify your processes with repeating events and the ability to schedule and share your daily and weekly activity calendars in advance. You can store a wealth of useful information in each activity, including start time, attendance tracker, location, colour coding and more. It is easy to keep family members involved with family events and to give them visibility of how their loved ones have engaged with activities through the updates they will see in their Altra family app.

Great activities don’t just fall out of the sky though. Every Activity Co-ordinator has spent a decent portion of their time wracking their brains and the internet for inspiration. Altra simplifies this with a robust and routinely updated wellbeing hub.  

This library contains exercise videos, colouring, quiz games, puzzles and more. Don’t worry, this goes beyond just suggesting good ideas for your community. Any additional resources you need for an activity in the library are available to download. Like images for colouring, questions for the quiz or guidance for the proposed exercises from a qualified physiotherapist. Altra gives you the content to put these activities into action, reducing admin and organisation time for your team.  

With 1,000s of activities to choose from, which are updated on a weekly basis. There will always be a fresh idea to energise your home and promote wellbeing. Each activity is easily reportable. With the option to engage your team, your community and their circles of care as you choose. 

If knowledge is power, then communication is power sharing, and Altra gives you the tools to do both. From your administrator to your aunty, Altra keeps the right people informed. With the right information, to promote the engagement, effectiveness and efficiency of your activities. 

You can read more about Altra’s functionality:
Feedback and Surveys
Communication and Family Engagement

Social care technology grew rapidly over the past 5 years. A variety of digital and technical solutions for the range of challenges that care providers face every day. In the rush to provide effective solutions suppliers created a new problem, replacing analogue silos of information with digital ones. The Nourish Partnership Programme addresses this problem by building a comprehensive digital estate of integration partners, that our users can review and apply to their service as required, so they can continue to provide outstanding care for their communities. 

‘We need to talk’ – a sentence that sends shivers down spines in bedrooms and boardrooms alike. Feedback acquisition, data gathering, internal research—whatever you name the process, conversation is critical to success. In social care, conversations are a fundamental part of providing quality, person-centred care. Care providers learn the best information about the people who utilise their service by engaging directly with them. Our partners, ImproveWell, build upon this opportunity by offering simple, easy-to-apply engagement tools for your workforce, clients and wider stakeholders.

Knowledge is power and ImproveWell gives you the power to prepare for inspections, increase employee engagement and drive qualified, person-centred improvement across your service.  

The Care Quality Commission in England has been rolling out its new inspection process since November 2023. The ‘single assessment framework’ is designed to put people at the heart of the inspection process. While the key categories remain the same; safe, caring, efficient, well-led and responsive, the methods for evidence gathering are updated. There are six categories for evidence that inspectors will now require.

The first three – ‘people’s experience of health and care services’, ‘feedback from staff and leaders’ and ‘feedback from partners’ – are all different forms of conversations. ImproveWell helps your team prepare for these conversations. By making real-time feedback simple and a regular occurrence in your care community by providing a mechanism for feedback anytime, anywhere. You can gain a clearer, and more regular insight into the experiences of your organisation at every level. Without even getting into the results of your engagement activities. Simply introducing the process to your teams and community will make them more familiar and, in doing so, more comfortable with it.

The latter three categories – observation, processes and outcomes – can all be improved through utilising the results of ImproveWell’s functionality.  ImproveWell’s solution can be set up in a bespoke way to suit the needs of your team and service. Everyone can suggest ideas for improvement, share how their workday is going, and complete tailored pulse surveys – 24/7. Insights from wider stakeholder groups can be gathered and an AI-powered data dashboard enables group and organisational leads to monitor real-time data, track workforce sentiment, prioritise quality improvement efforts, measure change, and publish reports to complete the feedback loop.

The Maternity Department at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust enjoyed notable improvements to their workforce engagement and morale. After the first phase of ImproveWell’s introduction in the Maternity Department. 75% of staff reported feeling able to improve their area of work, compared to the 53% scored by the Trust as a whole. (2018 NHS staff survey) Moreover, over 85% of users of ImproveWell felt it empowered them to implement ideas for change.

This is what makes these tools so relevant to inspections outside of England as well. All inspectors will engage with your staff in one form or another as part of their process. Whether it’s in their ear or over their shoulders. The more familiar the workforce is with being listened to and respected by senior management, the better they can provide and evidence high-quality care.

The Maternity Department at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust were able to improve their CQC rating from ‘Inadequate’ in 2017 to ‘Requires Improvement’ in 2018 following their implementation of Improvewell. In November 2019, the Maternity Department won the International Maternity Expo Transformation Innovation Award to recognise achievements made through ImproveWell, and in their most recent inspection in February 2023, they had improved the ratings for ‘Safe’ and ‘Well-Led’ to ‘Good’.

Workforce engagement is crucial in social care. We know that high job vacancies and staff turnover rates are longstanding issues for care providers. One of the surest ways to draw a big audience at any care event is to talk about recruitment and retention. It’s obvious if you have attended any of these talks in the past few years. You will know more and more providers are looking to improve their staff retention rates by increasing their employee engagement.

 “We’ve learnt that everyone would like more money but surprisingly it’s not as important as being happy in their work. Support and development of people is held in higher regard.” Residential care provider, Claxton House, Atlanta Healthcare.

The best way to support and develop people is to listen to them. Of course, that’s generally much easier said than done. ImproveWell turns recording, reviewing and actioning ideas from your workforce into a smooth, seamless process. The detail and specificity of ImproveWell’s functionality enables you to ask the right questions. Crucially, the AI-powered data dashboard provides an easy-to-use, insightful overview of the information you have gathered, so you can use frontline feedback for maximum effectiveness. Most care providers conduct internal surveys with their team, with varying results. ImproveWell enables you to take these findings further, and action them to the benefit of your service by empowering your team and wider community to take a more active role in their development, in both a personal and professional capacity.

Health and care providers who use ImproveWell to engage with their community have noticed benefits in four key areas. The first, and most direct benefit, is the increase in staff wellbeing and morale. It is only natural that satisfaction increases and turnover decreases when people feel like they play an active and important role in their workplace.  

Users also experience a notable quality improvement, in terms of the care they are able to provide. Primary sources are always the best place to start when looking to improve your processes. It is the people who are directly involved who have the deepest understanding, whether they are providing care, utilising care, or are a member of the community in which you operate. A wealth of insight is unlocked when you empower your community to be actively responsible for their care.

 “It’s the quick fixes that make the difference,” Nicole Lee, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Burns Service, Burns Matron.

This same logic applies when it comes to your service’s operational and cost efficiency. It is impossible to fully understand something by looking at it from the top down. All leaders know they need multiple perspectives to understand their organisation. Increase your operational and cost efficiency by creating a simple route for innovation. Carers are known for making a little go a long way, harness their ingenuity and experience and the rewards will soon follow.

People are the pulse of our communities. Engage directly with them to best understand the world in which your service exists. The concept behind micro-improvements is rooted in experience and the belief that with the right knowledge, you have the power to change the world. Maybe not the whole thing, but definitely your own. However first, we need to talk.

At Nourish Care we’re committed to continuously improving the accessibility and inclusivity of our technology, working towards our goal of developing a solution which truly works for everyone. We spoke to our Head of Product Design, Kate Horn, to learn more about our approach to embedding accessibility and inclusivity at the heart of our product design process.

“Accessibility and inclusivity have accidentally become a bit buzzwordy in the design world recently,” explains Kate, “and most definitely in health tech design. Why? Finally, we are all talking about ensuring that anyone can access the products we are creating. At Nourish these are not just words, they form the basis of design values that go right to our core, we are person-centred. We believe in a better life for everyone. To achieve this, we need to make sure anyone and everyone can use Nourish.”

“Honestly? They mean quite a lot of different things! 

“It is a common misconception that when we talk about accessibility, we are only talking about how we apply colours to designs and how we can make it high contrast. This is a factor, but it barely scratches the surface of the work to be done to make a platform, or an app genuinely accessible to anyone who wishes to use it.  

“Hold on a moment though, we are talking here about using something that is in your hand already. We need to take a step back and think about the technology and very basic level of access first and how, as designers, we can get the app into your hand or onto your desktop in the first instance. Given that you are reading this digitally, this is clearly not a problem for you but consider this; in 2022, 13-19 million people in the UK over 16 lived in a state of digital poverty. That means they did not have the tech, skill, or resources to fund internet access on one or more occasions a week.  

We cannot just build for the latest and most shiny versions of everything. Accessibility means we need to think about making sure what we create is available to everyone. In a way which does not exclude people, starting at the point of access and empowering them to enjoy the full experience of the platform.

“Inclusive” needs to go even further and it is worthy of a blog post on its own. For now, I want to touch on the importance of ensuring that inclusivity extends to individuals feeling genuinely included, seen and represented within our platforms.

First of all, we aim for the highest possible standard. There is a framework for accessibility in digital design for us to follow called WCAG. Within this there are levels, the highest of which is standard 2.2. This is what we strive to achieve. Standard 2.2 covers everything from the use of text, audio, layout, contrast, colour, platform adaptations, use of imagery, operational considerations, inputs, consistency of design and ensuring the platform is robust. And that’s just to start!

It is a solid start, however, a framework does not go far enough for accessibility and it doesn’t answer the requirement for inclusivity. To achieve this, there are several other elements to consider, starting with words.

Words are a powerful way for us to be both engaging and human, when used correctly. They are also one of the quickest ways for us to disconnect people from Nourish. If we describe areas of the platform or tasks using inhuman or technical language you first have to understand what we really mean and then have to choose if you really want to do it. We’re to make things simpler for you, not more complicated! So, step one for us is to speak in common English and start to create a comfortable experience.

Next on that list is understanding who we are designing for. This requires us to become so embedded in the health and care sector that we are a part of the furniture. Great insight means we understand the everyday challenges the people who are using our platform experience. This ensures we craft experiences for our platforms that work to solve these problems in a way that is comfortable for everyone.  

Throughout this blog I have used the words “anyone” and “everyone”. These are crucial terms for defining our approach. Typically, designers aim to design for the bell curve, that is, the biggest group of users.  

We simply cannot do this in health and social care. We have to step back and design solutions that truly work for anyone. This “flattening” of the curve is really important. It goes to the core of what we work to achieve as a company and the heart of our values as a design team. We want to create technology to truly wrap around the user in a great experience.

As users of Nourish will know, we’re continuously improving the accessibility and inclusivity of the platform, these really aren’t just buzzwords to us. We are working towards our goal of creating a system which can be easily used by anyone. There’s always more that can be done but by keeping these principles and our users at the heart of our design processes we are able to keep our person centred goals firmly in sight. 

Book a demo to find out more about Nourish and how we can work with anyone, and everyone in your community. 

Social care is in a state of change. Care providers tasked with being the steady hand through this change have consistently risen to the challenge. Despite having little control over the changes as they happen. At Nourish Care we are embracing this change by working with our users to develop a social care future we are all proud of.  With increasing standards, new regulations and extended funding availability it is clear now why so many care providers are embracing change themselves and switching to Nourish.  

Care providers have a wealth of options when choosing a digital partner. Under the original standards for the NHS Assured Solutions List (ASL) there are 24 Digital Social Care Records (DSCRs) to choose from. That’s without mentioning the systems who don’t reach these standards. The ASL is enjoying notable success so far, as it continues to work towards its target of 80% of care providers on DSCRs. Digitisation is widespread through social care now. To the point that many care providers are shopping around for a better system to match their service. 

The ASL was always intended as a starting point for the digitisation of social care. The Department of Health and Social Care has announced the second step of this journey, with the recent release of the 14 new standards for DSCRs on the ASL. We are one of the few providers to have achieved all 14 of these standards. You can read about the specifics of the standards here. 

We are the largest software supplier to have achieved the new standards. As well as being one of the first to get listed on the ASL following its initial launch. Our legacy of forward thinking and innovation consistently aligns us with the future direction of the social care sector. We are proud to be working closely with key decision makers in health and social care.  

We support care in a huge variety of settings. Including older person’s care, nursing, home care, learning disabilities, dementia, supported living, assisted living, substance abuse, mental health, children and young people and more. Each care setting is unique, and each care setting requires specific understanding to support effectively. 

Our experienced and understanding customer success and support teams will work with you to make sure our system fits your service. Whatever your needs are, and whatever they may become in the future.  

Once you switch to Nourish, we are with you every step of your journey. Should your journey lead you to new business opportunities we are the best equipped software supplier in social care to support your expansion. Whether you are focussed on a single type of care or support a range of different needs. 

You can also scale your functionality as desired, thanks to our comprehensive partnership programme. The programme unites key best-in-class innovators like Camascope for eMAR, Radar for incident management and PainChek for pain management. All while keeping a finger on the pulse for emerging technologies that will substantially impact the social care sector. 

Additionally, we offer more in-depth data packages called ‘Insights’ and ‘Analytics’. These features provide a much richer insight into the data gathered across your service. Perfect for larger care providers who collect vast swathes of information every day, but have no clear way to transform this potential into insightful, actionable information. 

The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) rollout of their new Single Assessment Framework (SAF) is enduring some understandable teething challenges. Initialisms aside the ambition of the project remains clear. The regulator wants to streamline processes and better respond to the needs of the people who draw upon care.  

We facilitate these new developments as effectively as possible. We work with organisations like the Care Software Providers Association (CASPA) to share our voice and insights on the development of digital social care with key decision makers in local and national government. Our work on alignment with #socialcarefuture helps to guide the future of our system as much as they guide the future of the wider care communities. Socialcarefuture are the co-authors of the ‘I/We Statements’ that define the SAF scoring.  

There is always something new to be considered, a fresh function to be explored or a new piece of legislation to be adhered to.  

We cannot know the future; all we can do is prepare for it. We have read the tea leaves, built our houses from stone and made hay while the sun shone. All so we can continue to lead the way in digital social care, through innovation, understanding and collaboration. 

Social Care is in a state of change, and with that ever-present uncertainty comes a great opportunity. Switch to Nourish today and take control of your change, with your team, your service and your community.